European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - January 12, 1991, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page 10 a a a the stars and stripes saturday january 12, 1991 Tiliaia a i ?3wkbswilliam Safi regime for self delusion about Saddam is past Saddam Hussein a foreign minister took in hand the letter from the president of the United states read it carefully and answered it in the most contemptuous Way available to nations he passed it Back across the table refusing to a Are Civ cd it. The representative of the nation that reintroduced Poison Gas to modern warfare used hostages As human Shields and is now systematically pillaging its Arab neighbor a this Man was instructed to say that the tone of the communication from Bush was insufficiently polite. So ended the a phony  a after five months of Wishful thinking in the West and ringing rhetoric in Baghdad the regime in Iraq made Clear to the world in the most insulting Way possible that it is not about to give up its Conquest of Oil Rich Kuwait. Vve can now dear our minds of self delusion. This includes a a we arc not communicating with the iraqi Leader. If Only he knew of1 the firmness of the worlds resolve he would Stop mis calculating. The problem has never been Lack of communication As foreign minister Tariq Aziz made Clear Baghdad is Well aware of what the world wants and what Power the United states has in place to enforce its demands. A give sanctions a couple of years to work and economic strangulation will bring Iraq to its Knees. This satisfies those who want to do nothing but seem to do something. It dresses weakness in a Tough jacket. Thus we hear a stay the course a and a tighten the  in reality the embargo is More annoyance than siege and is already being breached by Iran Jordan and the soviet Union. A Saddam Hussein May be an Assassin by profession and responsible for two invasions and More than a million deaths to Date but he is not irrational. He will recognize the reality of Superior Power. This foolishly projects onto him the View from our Side. From his Side he sees the ground forces arrayed against him Quot Fead my tips i Quot and assumes that we will wage his kind of Trench  the help of Poison Gas he Defeated a neighbouring nation with nearly triple his population. With More blood to expend and he is prepared to lose another half million iraqis a he thinks the worlds forces will tire and make a Deal. A a Compromise is easy to envision give him a couple of islands As Access to the Gulf plus a Fig Leaf of linkage to the palestinian cause and hell be willing to pull out of Kuwait. The Woods Are tilled with pundits and diplomats certain of his willingness to withdraw under the proper inducement but whenever the Opportunity arises a he concedes nothing. The a a deals is in the mind of the aggression retarders. In Saddam Hussein a mind Kuwait is his 19th province. F a  want a peaceful solution and would be Content with his withdrawal. A peace to which he shows no sign of agreeing that would permit him to build Long Range missiles and to equip them with nuclear germ warfare and chemical warheads is no peace at All but an invitation to a War in the mid-90s at a High Cost to the . Civilian population. A once he sees we re serious or United or ready a hell Cave. A a dozen . Resolutions a deadline an invisible Congress and implacable. President with massed troops and air Power ready a what further proof docs he need he knows what is coming and he is not caving. A but he a not crazy a he knows hell lose. At the 11th hour hell become reasonable. A. Athis is another bite at the rationality Apple. If he cannot draw us into a Long land War he faces the Prospect of defeat but by cloaking his land grab in a pan Arab cause he sees martyrdom ahead. Never a religious Man he  not see this As a Way to heaven but his consuming ego envisions a Vikings funeral with his nation the burning boat. A air Power has never won a War. Give modern air Power a Chance to decide this War with a two front invasion on the ground from North and South in the final stages. Not All iraqis Are Loyal to the dictator. We can encourage a kurdish uprising and a military coup. Because Iraq is the Center of world terrorism we must expect counterattack from that Quarter but we Are moving now to prevent terrorists from gaining nuclear arms. V the spurned letter Means the time for self delusion is Over. Let Congress express its resolve in a Resolution. And let the White House make Public the undelivered mail the world should read the message that was too direct and forceful for the tender eyes of Saddam Hussein. C the new York times William f. Buckle Post crisis Iraq should pay dearly for acts Ifyu of have been taking notes since last August you will have tracked the demands we have made on Iraq. They have included at one time or another i get out of Kuwait 2 restore Kuwait to the Way it used to be 3 make reparations to the kuwaitis for what they have been deprived of and what they have suffered. 4 get rid of Hussein whose Hitler Ite character makes him an International menace 5 get rid of inchoate nuclear plants and existing chemical and biological plants. But All that we focused on in the Days leading to the Baker Aziz meeting was we Promise not to enter Iraq with our military if he promises to pull out of Kuwait. Just that. Pull out of Kuwait. It was with some Relief then that one heard sen. George Mitchell say on one of the interview programs last sunday that promising not to strike with the military did not mean promising to end the sanctions. That is not a Point that has been widely advertised. It is unquestionably a Point that will be raised As these words see print. It is a critical Point. It it would of course be Fine to see the iraqi army leave Kuwait or what is left of it. But we should carefully sort a out now the distinction Between vindictiveness and Justice. If Saddam Hussein pulls out of Kuwait he still has a great Deal to answer for a great Deal that is not answered by the simple expedient of recalling his tanks. Some of the costs Are calculable approximately six months of lost revenues to Kuwait from the Sale of Oil. At about $60 million per Day that comes to approximately $11 billion. The Cost to the United states of our military Effort is not precisely known but the figure used is $30 billion. T hat makes $41 billion. We do not know what would be the Cost of rebuilding Kuwait City and it is hard to calculate the damages done by torturers murderers rapists and sundry sadists. Since we Are coming to round figures we might make that $10 billion. And we arrive at the principal Cost which is the increase in the Price of Oil which was $15 a barrel when the invasion took place soared to $41, and Sells now for about $25. One estimate of the value of the increased Oil Price is $150 billion. What is the value of the. Damage done to Western economies by the higher Oil price9 we might turn that figure Over to Richard Darman to contemplate. So we Are talking about something in the neighbourhood of $200 billion. Since iraqis monthly income from Oil sales is Only $6 billion approximately three years of Revenue from the Sale of iraqi Oil rightly goes in this order a to the United states with bits and pieces to reimburse our allies for the bits and pieces of Aid they have Given us b to the kuwaiti government and to the Kuwait people and c to other nations that paid excessive prices Tor Oil during the Dis Lodgment. A Cou to Enfa to e these provisions. It would probably be prudent As with reparations that were exacted of France by Germany after the War of 1870, and there Aie other precedents to take 50 percent of the value of iraqi Oil Tor six years rather than the whole of it Lor three years. Noblesse oblige. A As our Navy disperses it Quot can usefully teach other escort vessels How to chaperone iraqi tankers to consumer Points to collect half the Money yes in Advance a he. Matter of saudi Arabia i am not hoarse 1 cause i have allowed an entire month to go by withe ringing up the need to come Back from this it gag ement with a strategic solution to the open pc Lem. And this requires negotiating with the saudis Umu 01i Prce at a reasonable level for say 20 Yea without the cooperation of the saudis open can no reassemble its extortionate Cartel. A do a is inconceivable is it not that the Sau would deny us Protection from the extortion Sadd c a template when he overran Kuwait and stroked or Enestle fingers Over the map of saudi Arabia 11 audis need to know that we have been respond i e Tor a massive undertaking and that we need to a in or in the emirate of Sheik Jabir Mari 3 that should happen of course t in 1 Nir t0 Sive us a True sense of Strate  re Bush should have raised this Point earlier on t it new a perhaps he raised it obliquely. Conceive a i c1, i read George Bush slips and seen the year Tuo warn is no be Price increases until t  will know. C Universal press Syndicate on pm nil is expressed in the columns and cartoons  those of the authors and Are in a re h considered As representing the views of a s and stripes or the United states government